Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	belong_v	dear_a	great_a	84	3	2.1254	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58941	Sacramentorum encomium: or The praise of the sacraments in a letter written in the year 1654 to the preacher then at Barham in the county of Kent, with-holding the holy sacraments from a great number of godly souls, unless they would subject themselves against laws and good conscience to a rigid Presbyterian government. Wherein the said government is plainly and undeniably proved to be (of all other) the most injurious to the magistrate, most oppressive to the subject, &c. Published by a member of the parish of Barham, for the satisfaction of all wel-affected subjects, and good Christians.	Member of the parish of Barnham.	1661 (1661)	Wing S223B; ESTC R219820	25,942	69

self-seeking ends in some who when they know themselves infinitely short of that learning hath been in their Predecessors and therefore not knowing how to get unto themselves fame by walking in the plain and beaten road leading to happiness marked out for them will attempt to get unto themselves a name by pretending to have found out a nigher way unto it then any else have done before them amuzing the unlearneder sort with a belief hereof get unto themselves followers after their own horrid inventions whom they entice into such a path as neither our blessed Saviour nor any of his holy Apostles ever traced out for them insensibly by degrees bring them into such a Labyrinth which when they are once entred into they become amazed and know not which way to get out of it and then run out of one error into another from bad to worse till at length they become as dreadful Comets to all that behold them These kind of pernicious leaders imitate him who knowing not by any other act set the Temple of Diana on fire with an intent to memorize themselves by that strange one And what can be thought better of these than of that Monster of men Bernardinus Ochinus whose zeal at the first seemed to be so violent as no former Religious institution though never so rigorous was strict enough for him he from thence fell to be an Heretick then a Jew then a Turk and last of all an Atheist and then wrote a furious invective against the three grand Impostors of the world amongst whom he ranked Horresco referens Jesus the Prince of Peace Saviour of mankind and Moses as well as Mahomet And what can they be construed but self seeking ends in those men by whom those who are rich who are powerful and able to do either good or hurt though they be as ignorant and scandalous to the world and perhaps more than those who are poor shall notwithstanding be diligently invited gladly received and earnestly entreated to partake of those comfortable mysteries and saving food which the Redeemer of Mankind hath prepared for all true believers without all peradventure in as large a measure for those indigent ones to whom the Kingdome of Heaven belongs as for those great ones who will find it easier for a Camel to enter thorow the eye of a nedle than for the proud ever to come there O let this slie generation of men know who are guilty of this wilful omission and such as upon unwarrantable pretences deny the holy Sacrament of Baptism to those it belongs to and who thrust by hungry and thirsty Souls from the saving banquet of of the Lords supper who preferr obstinacy and selfish ends before the will of their Lord and Maker that though they may take to themselves the glorious name of Gods dear Children it is to be feared they may at last be found out to be Children of Belial in having in the day of their fast sought their own will rather than the will of their great Commander let them take heed that though in their own conceit they may be lifted up to Heaven they be not brought down as low as Hell for most assuredly it will be easier for those in the Land of Sodom in the day of Judgment to enjoy the new Jerusalem than for obstinate and self-seeking Hypocrites to come within the gates thereof Which kind of people profess to know God Tit. 1.16 but it is to be feared in their works deny him they shut up the kingdom of Heaven before men going not in themselves nor suffering those that would enter to come in They say stand apart Esay 65.5 come not near to us for we are holier than you Jer. 6.13 Yet they bend their tongues like bowes for lies and proceed from evil to worse Pro. 12.22 Their lying lips are an abomination to the Lord and their throats as open sepulchers Esay 7.9 Their hearts is as hard as the Adamant stone and deceitful above all things Esay 9.16 They are leaders of the People causing them to err and at last devour them Esay 15.26 They lay wait as he that setteth snares and make nets to catch men Jude They have mens persons in admiration because of advantage Esay 5.16 They draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin with cart ropes They are much given to be drunk with malice though not with wine and to stagger their heads being full of whimsies though not with strong drink which causeth them to be Eagle-eyed in spying the mote in their brothers eye and blind in beholding the beam that is in their own they are strainers at gnats and swallowers of Camels Esay 59.5 They hatch the Cockatrice egs and weave the spiders web 64.6 They are as an unclean thing and their very righteousness as a filthy clout From the least of them to the greatest they are commonly given to Covetousness 6.13 and from the Prophet to the Priest they all deal falsly the Prophets among them being a company of crafty fools and the spiritual men no less then mad These are they which separate themselves from others walking after their own lusts murmuring complaining mocking and speaking evil even of those they know not Clouds they are without water carried about with every wind of doctrine favourers of damnable Heresies raging waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame wandring stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever Ju●… But here by the by we desire there may be notice taken that it is no part of our thought to bring within the circumference of this description of Hypocrites any truly sincere and godly soul neither have we the least aim to any particular holy persons alive that we are acquainted withal and therefore if any shall account him or themselves deciphered hereby and thereupon take offence it must necessarily arise even in the opinion of all indifferent men from the check of his or their own restless consciences which we heartily wish had no just cause to accuse them as we are truly innocent of any intent of doing so We leave this way of accusing censuring particular persons to that Pharisaical generation of people who being rapt up by a spiritual kind of pride into the aëry Region of a conceited degree of holiness in themselves do from thence look upon others as sensual polluted and wicked yea as dogs and swine altogether unworthy to eat with them either at their own or the Lords Table or so much as to come within the verge of their select company We thank our God we have not in such manner learned Christ as to place our selves in the seat of the Judg accuser censurer or scorner of our Brethren we shall leave all men to the great day of Judgment for who is he that dares anticipate that day and enter upon the throne of the great Judg We confess that the serious acknowledgment of

Sacramentorum Encomium OR THE PRAISE OF THE SACRAMENTS IN A LETTER written in the Year 1654 to the Preacher then at Barham in the County of Kent with-holding the Holy SACRAMENTS from a great number of godly souls unless they would subject themselves against Laws and good Conscience to a Rigid PRESBYTERIAN GOVERNMENT Wherein the said Government is plainly and undeniably proved to be of all other the most Injurious to the Magistrate most oppressive to the Subject c. Published by a Member of the Parish of Barham for the satisfaction of all Wel-affected Subjects and good Christians The Prophet is the snare of a Fowler in all his ways Hosea 9.8 London Printed in the Year 1661. SIR THe eye of the world hath now twice made his progress through all his 365 degrees and you having received of the Parishioners of Barham since you came hither well nigh so many pounds as there are degrees for his orb to move in during all which we a considerable number of the same Parish having with no ordinary pat●ence as we and others too conceive expected that you should administer the holy and saving Ordinances of our most blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ amongst us but to our wonderment and greif finding so great we will not yet say wilful neglect in you therein do now not out of any humour of opposition or cavelling with you qualities which become not the servants of our Lord and Master who is the Prince of peace but out of a sincere and hearty affection to the glory of Almighty God and the welfare of our souls in all hum●lity and meekness of Spirit earnestly desire implore you from the very bottom of our hearts as you are a Minister of Jesus Christ if as truly sent amongst us as never chosen by us or liked of us that you will not defraud us of that which we conceive belongs to us our Children is no less then the holy Sacraments ordained by the Lord Jesus himself till the time of his second c●…ing In this manifestation of our thoughts and desires you cannot expect from us plain Countrey-men any Rhetorical florishes any depth of humane learning any wisdome such as is that of the world these faculties as they are above the sphaere of our capacities so are they far beneath the level of our desires for we seriously confess we covet not the excellency of enticing words or of the wisdome of the men or Princes of the world but that which we daily and hourly beg for is that we may receive the Spirit of God thereby to know Christ crucified and seasonably to apply his merits to our souls by participation of him in his holy Sacraments We know that the world knew not God in the wisdome of God that natural man perceiveth not nor indeed can he perceive the things of the Spirit of God We also know that not many wise men not many mighty not many noble no not many Princes of the world hath God chosen to be his favourites but that he hath made choise of the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty and the vile things of the world and things which are despised and things which are not to bring to nought things that are amongst which foolish and weak things we ranck our selves neither having attained to nor indeed much affected the wisdome of the world or excellency of words God he knows our meaning is honest and very plain and we shall sincerely propose our very hearts and thoughts to you We truly confess we speak 〈◊〉 to your honor we have not observed any of those vices of drunkenness or prodigallity in you which too too much abound in some men we do as cordially wish that spiritual pride secret malice and immoderate covetousness affections which many times are too too predominant in the Saints themselves may not take up any lodging in the chambers of your as we hope sanctified heart yet we must really tell you we cannot but wounder with what face with what reason with what conscience you could impose or suffer your self to be imposed upon a people which it should seem you esteem to be no better then Infidels or dogs for upon what other ground we are to seek why you should refuse to give that which is holy unto us we have not as yet denyed to give you temporal things the fruits of the labour of our hands the sweat of our browes the issue of our brains why should you withold from us those which are spiritual why should you keep back from us those tokens which our Lord and Master hath left for us we beseech you tell us do you think it your whole duty to get up into the Pulpit and there only preach unto us and by vertue thereof to extort tythes from us in sober sadness is there nothing else in your opinion required of a Minister of Jesus Christ are there no signs and seals of the Covenant of grace to be delivered by you to us is it therefore you refuse to do it because you may think there be some amongst us that have been railors drunkards wantons fornicators adulterers or covetous persons why though not guilty we can say it is to be feared such were some of you and if you be now washed sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God who knoweth but by the same spirit we may be in the like manner washed sanctified and justified and if so or desire to be so pardon us if we importune the seals of Grace which may conduce to our future glory But if you think us like Turks Jews and Heathen unworthy of them tel us so if not why have you witheld them from us all this while if you will not give them us but necessitate us to seek for them elsewhere we then desire you to set down your reasons under your hand in the mean while we demand of you with what conscience or honor you can refuse to restore back to the poorer sort amongst us out of that great income you receive those moneyes they have been forced to expend upon other Ministers for doing that which we conceive of right belonged ●o you to do we say great income because it is great in it self greater in respect of the very little content you give us for when we stedfastly look upon you and behold you like Janus to have two faces with the one looking earnestly toward our Tithes without any regard to the Sacraments with the other toward Womens weuld we cannot apprehend you to be other then some strange Minister we will not say Monster rushed in amongst us and indeed such an one as neither we nor our Fore-fathers ever saw in Barham before None of your Predecessors some of whom without all peradventure were pious and learned men Hooker ever like unto your self denyed the Sacraments unto

us they knew them to serve as bonds of obedience to God strict obligations to the mutual exercise of Christian Charity provocations to godliness preservations from sin memorials of the principal benefits of Christ annexed for ever unto the new Testament as other Rites were before with the Old they knew them to be warrants for the more security of our belief marks of distinction to seperate Gods own from strangers heavenly Ceremonies sanctified by God himself and ordained to be administred in his Church as signs to know whereby God doth impart the vital or saving grace of Christ unto all that are capable thereof and as means which God requireth in them unto whom he imparteth Grace For sith God in himself is invisible and cannot by us be disc●rned working therefore when it seemeth good in the eyes of his heavenly wisdome that men for some special intent and purpose should take notice of his glorious presence he giveth them some plain and sensible token whereby to know what they cannot see For Moses to see God was imposible yet a Exod. 2.3 Moses by fire knew where the glory of God extraordinarily was present The b Joh. 5 4. Angel by whom God endued the waters of the Pool called Bethesda with supernatural vertue to heal was not seen of any yet the time of the Angels presence known by the troubled motions of the waters themselves The Apostles c Act. 2.3 by fiery tongues which they saw were admonished when the Spirit which they could not behold was upon them In like manner it is with us Christ and his holy Spirit with all the blessed effects though entring into the soul of man we are not able to apprehend or express how do notwithstanding give notice of the times when they use to make their access because it pleaseth Almighty God to communicate by sensible means those blessings which are incomprehensible Our Predecessor knew the necessity of receiving the Sacraments that grace is a consequent of them a thing which accompanieth them as their end that it is not Gods ordinary will to bestow the grace of the Sacraments on any but by the Sacraments which grace also they that receive by Sacraments or with Sacraments receive it from him and not from them they knew that saving grace which Christ originally is or hath for the general good of the whole Church he severally deriveth 〈◊〉 every member thereof by Sacraments and that they serve as the Instruments of God to that end and purpose Hooker moral instruments the use whereof is in our hands the effect in his they knew that for the use of them we have his express commandment for the effect his promise so that without our obedience to the one there is of the other no apparant assurance and we are not to doubt but that they really give what they promise and are what they signifie they knew that the Sacraments are not bare resemblances or memorials of things absent or naked signs and Testimonies assuring us of grace received bef●re but as they are indeed and in verity means effectual whereby God when we take the Sacraments delivereth into our hands that grace available unto eternal life which grace the Sacraments signifie or represent and are they such effectual means are they necessary to salvation are they by God himself for ever annexed unto the new Testament how great then is the neglect how great the Offence how detestable the wilfulness of those men who though impowred set apart in a great measure for that purpose and required by God himself to communicate them in order to the salvation of his people shall notwithstanding be careless in performance of his will yea peremptorily deny to put his most sacred and saving Ordinances in execution Hath the great Judg of all the world said that a Joh. 3.33 unless a man be born of water the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven except you eat of the b Joh. 6.53 flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood ye have no life in you and hath the mirror of piety and Learning affirmed that we may with consent of the whole ●hristian world Hooker conclude the Sacrament of Baptism and the Supper of the Lord to be necessary the one to initiate or begin the other to consummate and make perfect our life in Christ who then can imagine otherwise but great must be the ignorance or obstinacy of those kind of men who deny the administration of those heavenly Mysteries which are so necessary to eternal life For as concerning the Sacrament of Baptism in the first place we believe as we are not naturally men without birth so neither are we Christian men in the eye of the Church of God but by new birth nor according to the manifest ordinary course of divine dispensation new born but by that Baptism which both declareth and maketh us Christians In which respect we justly hold it to be the door of our actual entrance into Gods house the first apparant begining life a seal perhaps to the grace of election before received b●t to our sanctification here a step which hath not any before it The Law of Christ tyeth all men to receive this baptism expresly specified by water and the Spirit water as duty required on our parts the Spirit as a gift God bestoweth for unless as the Spirit is a necessary inward cause so water were a necessary outward means to our regeneration what construction should we give unto those words to be new born and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even of water why are we taught a Eph. 5.2 that with water God doth purifie and cleanse his Church wherefore do the Apostles of Christ term baptism b Tit. 3.5 a bath of Regeneration what purpose had they in giving men advice to c Act. 2.38 receive outward baptism and in perswading them it did avail to remission of sins If then Christ himself who giveth salvation do require baptism it is our duty who look for salvation seriously to do that which is required and religiously to feare the danger which may grow by the want thereof and it behooveth all Ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ who have any fear of God in their hearts and care of delivering mens souls from sin to teach men the necessity thereof not omit when ocasion is offered this their necessary duty in their own persons For though we grant that those sentences which make Sacraments most necessary to eternal life are no prejudice to their salvation that want them by some inevitable necessity and without any fault of their own yet we say it ought in reason to be acknowledged likewise that for as much as the Lord himself maketh Baptism necessary necessary whether we respect the good received by it or the Testimony yeilded unto God of that humility and meek obedience which reposing wholy it self on the absolute authority of his commandment and